TL: Hua
Bai Jingxing apologized to the bewildered hotel owner, and the group hurried upstairs with the pale-faced Li Tianyu.
Staying here is also of no use. It’s unlikely that the boss will give them any useful information at the moment.
In the reception room, Xie Yuanyuan heard Wen Zheliu recounting the whole story and scratched his head in confusion: “Does this Miss Li have some kind of mental illness? Ever since we met her, she has been rolling her eyes, dropping sarcastic remarks, and being angry all the time. What’s wrong with her?”
“It’s just a princess’s temper tantrum.” Du Zijun wiped the barrel of the gun with a velvet cloth in boredom and said, “It’s normal; I’ve seen a lot.”
Wen Zheliu sighed troublingly: “But this is the uncanny valley. If she keeps behaving like this, I’m afraid not only her own life will be in danger, but we’ll also be dragged down by her.”
“Also…” Xie Yuanyuan rubbed his cheeks in distress. “Now we’re in escape mode, not survival mode… If she’s eliminated, our difficulty will increase…”
While they were talking over here, the group of people over there had already begun to study the engraved marks on the back of Li Tianyu’s hand.
“Well,” Wen Zheliu said with his hand on his chin, “The imprint of the saint nun is already on her hand. I don’t know how she’s going to get through tonight.”
Du Zijun raised his eyelids and asked, “Isn’t she Li Rong’s younger sister? How did her brother teach her to be such a mentally handicapped person?”
“She still has some skills.” He Qin leaned against the wall, seemingly pondering something, saying, “But that’s an advantage in competitive games. I’m afraid it won’t work in this kind of place that requires one to use their brain.”
While they were talking, John came in with a tray and greeted the crowd: “Dear guests, this is the fruit prepared for you by the kitchen. Please enjoy.”
Wen Zheliu’s eyes lit up, and he hurriedly called out, “Wait a minute!”
He Qin got up, went to retrieve the two items, and showed them to the waiter, “Look at this; was it left by the previous guest?”
John fixed his gaze on the lipstick and medicine bottle, his expression motionless like a stiff clay sculpture.
Wen Zheliu suddenly became vigilant. He walked up to He Qin and stared closely at the NPC, who might be an enemy or a friend. His hand slowly touched the cane at his waist, and he tentatively called out, “Hello?”
“Yes!” The next moment, John suddenly beamed with joy and exclaimed with great excitement, “I remember a beautiful lady and a handsome gentleman; yes, it belongs to them!”
Everyone present was silent, looking at the waiter with full suspicion. His startled movements were like a clockwork doll.
Wen Zheliu’s hand was still on his waist as he asked cautiously but gently, “So, where are they now?”
The waiter looked at him strangely and replied, “Of course they’re here, sir.”
“Where?” Wen Zheliu asked.
“In the Midnight Happy Show, sir.” The waiter said, “They are now residents of Melios, the happy town.”
Everyone continued to observe John. The waiter’s face muscles were stiff, his eyes were shining brightly, and he slowly showed them a wide, toothy grin.
He stared straight ahead with an exaggerated smile on his face and hoarsely said to the player, “Melios, Happy Town…welcome your visit.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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However, as soon as he finished asking, he regretted it a bit because this question seemed to have flipped some kind of switch. John pressed one hand on his chest while raising the other hand up high, making a grandiose opening gesture towards the players, and said in a high voice, “Midnight Happy Show, Happy life!”
He Qin raised his eyebrows and pulled Wen Zheliu away from this suddenly crazy waiter.
But then John bowed slightly and derangedly held up a finger. His behavior was very dramatic, as if he were facing the camera in front of the TV. He asked in a sly tone, “Does your life lack joy? Do you need happiness? Does work and boring textbooks make you feel that life is always boring?”
“Friendly reminder: don’t watch it if you have a heart condition or when you’re eating.” John let out a very regular, wind-up laugh from his chest: “Because it will make you over! blown! with happiness!”
Finally, he turned around in a circle, coyly lifting the non-existent hem of the skirt and curtsying to everyone as the closing act.
In the empty and luxurious reception room, nine shocked and speechless audience members and a neurotic actor were present.
John was a tall, thin, unattractive man with freckles on his face. A grown man behaving like this should be very comical and ridiculous, but the normal people in the room, after watching him sing and act, all felt chills on their heads and a strange coolness blowing from their spines towards their brains.
“And that is the Midnight Happy Show.” He stood upright with a relaxed expression on his face and solemnly concluded, “The show that brings us happiness is the Midnight Happy Show.”
He put the towel on his arm again and smiled at the stunned crowd, saying, “Please enjoy your fruit.”
After finishing speaking, he turned and left without hesitation, closing the door of the reception room.
[Main quest: Investigating the town hotel (11) has been completed. ]
[Rewards: 300 experience points and 500 copper coins. The rewards have been sent to your inventory. ]
[Congratulations, your level has risen to: level 17]
[The main quest has been updated: Watch the Midnight Happy Show (unlimited times)]
There was a dead silence, and when everyone came back to their senses, they discovered that their mental values had collectively dropped by about 2%–5% during the waiter’s performance just now.
“What the hell is this…” Xie Yuanyuan was rendered speechless: “Damn it, the mental pollution effect is too strong…”
Bai Jingxing didn’t speak; Chen Feiluan, Lin Miao, and others also had unsightly expressions. Wen Zheliu had been instinctively holding onto his cane, waiting to strike at any time. Until now, he hasn’t relaxed his grip.
“Baby, baby?” He Qin stretched out his hand and gently pried open his fingers, saying, “He’s already gone; it’s fine; relax.”
“It’s not him who has strong mental pollution,” Wen Zheliu said in a low voice, “it’s the so-called Midnight Happy Show.”
“Ah,” Du Zijun held the burning cigarette between his fingers, and it almost reached the end, but he ignored it and just frowned, “The content of his performance just now should be the opening remark of the reality show.”
“—just an opening remark.” Xi Ling pursed his lips tightly, “The main quest at night should be a fierce battle.”
Li Tianyu wrapped the blanket tightly around her body, let out a trembling and uneasy breath, and said with a low sobbing voice, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry …… I really don’t know what’s wrong with me, I ……”
“Alright.” Du Zijun lowered his eyes, reached into the ashtray, and dusted off the cigarette ash, “Things have come to this point; it’s just a waste of time to hear you say I’m sorry. Why don’t you calm down and think about what to do next.”
He Qin looked around and glanced at each person’s faces. Finally, he pulled Wen Zheliu’s wrist and ordered, “Go back to your respective rooms to rest for a while. It’s best to eat something and get ready.”
“Chen Feiluan,” he said, calling out to the man who was thinking with his head slightly turned towards Li Tianyu. The latter didn’t expect that He Qin would suddenly call his name, and his expression suddenly turned a little surprised. “Please look out for Miss Li. We’re now in escape mode, and having anyone drag our feet will affect the result of the team’s final ranking. I think everyone’s goal should be more than just the basic requirement of customs clearance, right?”
Although his voice was light and there was a casual smile on his face, there was an overwhelming sense of decisiveness in between his words, which made Chen Feiluan straighten up, solemnly nod, and say, “OK, I got it.”
Bai Jingxing frowned, staring at He Qin’s departing back. After a long time, he slowly relaxed his eyebrows and smiled with great interest.
“Let’s go too.” He pushed his glasses and said to Lin Miao.
Back in the room, Wen Zheliu wailed depressingly and threw himself face down on the bed, smothering himself in the fluffy, soft silk quilt and not speaking.
He Qin walked over and slapped his butt lightly, saying, “Take off your clothes before going to bed.”
Wen Zheliu was trapped in the soft bed and struggled to turn his head around. “How are we going to clear this? Until now, not a single clue has been found, and there’s also a teammate who specializes in bringing disaster. This is too difficult! ”
He Qin crossed his arms and looked down at him with amusement. Wen Zheliu howled for a while when something suddenly occurred to him. He quickly sat up and shouted at He Qin, “Right! I forgot to ask. Be honest with me, how did you get out!”
He Qin dragged a chair over and sat down in the gap between the two beds, “Remember to ask now? I thought you had forgotten.”
“Don’t change the subject!” Wen Zheliu raised his fist and was about to swing it, but was suppressed by He Qin with force.
“Okay, okay,” He Qin squinted his eyes lazily like a big leopard basking in the sun and said, “Actually, the reason is very simple; it’s the last name Marianne signed.”
Wen Zheliu was shocked: “What’s the situation? I thought I was just treating a dead horse. I didn’t expect it to actually work?”
He Qin nodded and said, “Well…the carriage will take you to Despair City, and the ticket with Marianne’s signature is your permission to use the carriage. She signed my name on the ticket, which means…”
“…It is equivalent to granting you permission and acknowledging your player status!” Wen Zheliu suddenly figured it out and almost jumped up from the bed happily. “So that’s how it is; that’s great! I was thinking, how could you escape from the saint nun in that case…”
When he said this, the elated expression on his face couldn’t help but stagnate. He slowly closed his lips and swallowed the words he hadn’t finished speaking under his tongue.
At this age, emotions come and go quickly, like a gust of wind in the summer. He Qin brushed away the sweat-soaked hair from his forehead for him and asked in a low voice, “What’s the matter, baby?”
“…… She won’t find you and take you back, right?” Thinking of this, Wen Zheliu couldn’t help but anxiously hug his own knees, a posture that showed how insecure the speaker is. “She won’t, right?”
He Qin broke into laughter and comforted him: “No, the part of her personality that was implanted with fairness and justice is still affecting her. Now that the game has started, she will not act rashly here and destroy the second world balance.”
“What’s fair and just!” Wen Zheliu vexedly complained, “The game agreement stipulates that people under 18 can’t enter, and I’m not yet 18. Why did she throw me here?”
He Qin shook his head and wiped off the bead of sweat from his forehead. “Look at how old Xi Ling is; isn’t he only 14 years old this year?”
“Huh?” Wen Zheliu was dumbfounded. “That’s right… I forgot about him, so what’s going on?”
“From the moment Celesa broke through the Turning Test and declared herself an independent intelligent life, she was no longer subject to the City of Nova, and the so-called protocols made for her by humans naturally could not produce any constraints on her.” He Qin said, “But the game world, after all, has its own natural rules of operation; even she had to submit to ‘fate’.”
“‘Fate’…” Wen Zheliu murmured, “You told me that it is a very huge computing module, right?”
He Qin smiled and said: “Not one, but countless, hundreds of millions. They’re like ubiquitous threads that connect the nine worlds of Uncanny Valley, determining the ending of the NPC and the ending of the story.”
“Within the same space-time, there exist millions of identical worlds, millions of different groups of players, and millions of different endings.” He Qin smiled at him and said, “That’s how ‘fate’ works.”
Wen Zheliu sighed with emotion: “It sounds so grand.”
“So don’t be afraid.” He Qin patted his head. “Although she is the god of Uncanny Valley, she can only achieve omniscience and omnipotence, and she has no way to break through the shackles of all-seeing yet.”
“Omniscience and omnipotence, knowing everything and being able to achieve anything… Then what is all-seeing?” Wen Zheliu asked curiously.
“Observation.” He Qin said with a light smile, “Observe yourself, observe the world, observe the exiled truth, observe the ultimate answer of things, and then the will transcends latitude, beyond the circle of reincarnation—this is all-seeing.”
Wen Zheliu pondered for a long time and suddenly said: “Beyond the limitations of time and space, and then see time and space. Is this what you mean?”
He Qin’s eyes widened slightly, then he turned his head to stare at Wen Zheliu. After a moment, he sighed softly.
“Sometimes, you’re just too smart,” he said with some apprehension, “but at the same time, you’re too kind—to put it bluntly, too softhearted. I don’t know if that’s good or bad for you, but I know very well that one day you will be dragged down by them.”
“That can’t be, right?” Wen Zheliu was a little frightened by his serious tone: “I didn’t do anything…”
He Qin didn’t speak any more; he just smiled and said, “Go to sleep; there are still a few hours before night. I’ll go to the kitchen to get some food later.”
“Aren’t you going to sleep?” Wen Zheliu was indeed a little sleepy after the exhaustion. He yawned and looked sideways at He Qin with watery eyes.
“I won’t sleep; I’ll watch you.” He Qin took off his coat, closed the window again, and drew the heavy curtains. “Cover yourself with the quilt; it’s going to get cold soon.”
This is quite true. The western region is sparsely covered with vegetation and has a huge temperature difference between day and night. As soon as the sun sets and the evening wind blows, it is enough to make people shiver with cold.
Wen Zheliu muttered something, turned over, covered himself with the quilt, and fell asleep peacefully.
He Qin stared at his sleeping face and sighed silently.
—No matter what happens, I’ll always be watching you.
Soon, the time was approaching midnight.
Wen Zheliu ate some sandwiches and fruit that He Qin brought from the kitchen—but according to He Qin, there was no one in the kitchen at all. He and a few other people made the sandwiches.
Wen Zheliu was indeed a bit hungry; he wolfed down one and said in a daze, “Hey, you should have said it earlier. It would be fine if you told me to go down and make it. I used to work in a fast food restaurant!”
“Eat yours.” He Qin sat on the bed without raising his head. With one leg bent, he was wiping the ring-headed long knife in his hand with a flannel cloth. The shining light of the crystal chandelier on the ceiling was reflected on the blade like a wave of cold light. From top to bottom, the blade is smeared with naturally forged swirl patterns. From a distance, it looks like a row of crystalline, piercing teeth from the beast biting obliquely, which gives people the chills with just one look.
“Is this… Huan Shou Dao(sword)?” He asked.
“No.” He Qin said with a nostalgic smile on his lips, “This is called Heng Dao. It’s the knife I used for learning swordsmanship as a child.”
Wen Zheliu didn’t fully understand but still nodded. After eating, he drank the bottle of experience potion that could only be used once in a world and instantly rose to level 18 in order to unlock all the effects of the knight’s cane.
“Let’s go to the reception room.” He took a deep breath and said.
Our boy is really smart!!!!
Thank you for your translation 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
The next chapter should be quite interesting!!!
Thank you for the update!
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️
Ooo, I wonder what he qin is referring to here? But hehe they’re so cute together, I really like the causal comfort they have.
Also I love how the author still shows that wen zheliu is still a teenager through like how he whined in annoyance and flopped down on the bed. I do that a lot lmao and it really gives him so much personalityAlso you misspelled Theresa as celesa in one of the paragraphs, if you’re ok with us mentioning mistakes like that
I don’t mind. Thank for pointing it out ; )
Although I’ve already seen a spoiler, this chapter makes me even more curious about their pasts. Wen Zheliu acting cute is a plus too
Thanks for the chapter!